Feature Articles

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2026 08:16 ET (21-Jun-2026 12:16 GMT/UTC)

National labs support safe nuclear waste disposal by studying safety material for underground sites

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Geoscientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and two other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories, Sandia and Los Alamos, are collaborating on the HotBENT project. This international field experiment is evaluating how well the natural, clay-based material (bentonite) placed around canisters of buried, high-level nuclear waste retains its safety functions when exposed to simulated long-term heating.

Economic Impact: Sandia spends $3.9B, exceeds small-business goals

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

Supporting a growing workforce and a wide range of businesses, Sandia National Laboratories contributed an all-time high of $3.9 billion into the economy during fiscal year 2021.

Live Celebration, Q&A: Brookhaven Lab's 75th Anniversary

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory will kick-off its 75th anniversary with a live-streamed celebration. Meet three of the Lab’s leaders as they share their vision for the future of particle physics, climate science, quantum information science, and more. Then, the panel will answer questions from a live, virtual audience.

Taking on decarbonization in the ag sector: ORNL summit highlights focus areas

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Energy and sustainability experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, industry, universities and the federal government recently identified key focus areas to meet the challenge of successfully decarbonizing the agriculture sector, as well as scientific resources that the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories can bring to the table.

Artificially altered material could accelerate neuromorphic device development

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Neuromorphic devices — which emulate the decision-making processes of the human brain — show great promise for solving pressing scientific problems, but building physical systems to realize this potential presents researchers with a significant challenge. An international team has gained additional insights into a material compound called vanadium oxide, or VO2, that might be the missing ingredient needed to complete a reliable neuromorphic recipe.

Journal: Physical Review B
Funder: National Research Foundation of Korea

Using ion soft landing to solve hard energy problems

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

In adjoining Energy Sciences Center laboratories, researchers develop better energy storage devices by understanding the fundamental reactions that form interfaces.

Nuclear energy as a hidden gem: a conversation with Argonne nuclear chemist Andrew Breshears

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

This is an edited transcript of Argonne’s June 29 Instagram Live interview with Andrew Breshears, a principal nuclear chemist at Argonne.

Energy justice for all: a conversation with Kathryn Huff from the Department of Energy

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

This is an edited transcript of Argonne’s June 29 Instagram Live interview with Dr. Kathryn Huff, the principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary in the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

It’s in the water

DOE/Idaho National Laboratory

Electric vehicles are expected to be essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As more of them roll off production lines and onto roads, the world will need two things: more lithium, the key element in the batteries that power them, and carbon-free power to charge those batteries. A recent study conducted by INL researchers suggests that lithium from U.S. geothermal plants could meet up to 8% of the world’s demand.

Journal: Resources Conservation and Recycling

Scientists use Summit supercomputer, deep learning to predict protein functions at genome scale

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team of scientists led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology is using supercomputing and revolutionary deep learning tools to predict the structures and roles of thousands of proteins with unknown functions.